India School Supplies

I first became aware of, and involved with this grass roots project while attending a pilgrimage retreat to Mt. Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, India,  which is led by an American meditation teacher named Ramana.

Each year during the pilgrimage, Ramana and his “right-hand man” Venkatesan Sakkuran have accepted donations from pilgrimage attendees for the poorest of the poor schoolchildren in the area.

This effort was initiated with Venkatesan, who seeks out the most remote and needy village schools as beneficiaries.  Venkatesan’s own education was sponsored by a European Westerner, and this serves as his form of gratitude: to “pay it forward”, in order to enhance these children’s education.

Your kind donations are used to purchase school supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, etc.) which are personally distributed to children at these schools .  This is an annual element  / activity during the pilgrimages.  The funds are not given to the school; rather, the supplies are purchased and personally delivered to the children themselves in their classrooms by Venkatesan, Ramana, and those on the pilgrimage during a personal visit to the selected schools.

Won’t you please consider contributing from the openness of your own  your heart to support this most worthy project?